Monthly Archives: May 2012

After a busy 2 days with 8+ hours of driving, scorching sunshine and a day out at Peppa Pig World, we finally made our way to Marwell Wildlife to find out how my ‘Grey Heron’ collage did at this year’s BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012…

I didn’t win, but did receive a commendation from the judges.

I was initially disappointed not to win, but after sleeping on it I’m now actually quite pleased with the result, especially as some of the people I was talking to had entered 4 or 5 times to no avail – so to be commended 2 years in a row isn’t bad at all.

It also gave me a boost that Sophie Stafford (Editor of the BBC Wildlife magazine) sought me out personally to say hello and tell me she really liked my entry and the Illustration promos that I’d sent her a few months ago.

Having to drive down to Marwell for the results also gave us the chance to take Mali to the nearby Peppa Pig World too (we’re all big fans of the show).

Seeing her face meeting Peppa and George (two poor souls dressed in huge costumes on a scorching hot day) was priceless and made the long and tiring trip worth while.

This picture of Mali pretty much sums up how we all felt after a busy few days.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind messages of support both before and after the results – they really did all mean a lot to me.

Towards the end of last year, I was commissioned by the Indian arm of Penguin to create a quick Illustration for the cover of a book by renowned Indian poet Vikram Seth.

The brief was pretty strict, with a description of exactly what they wanted, but as I hadn’t collaged water before it was still a fun project to complete.

From receiving the brief to delivery of final artwork, everything completed within 24 hours, so It was also good practice in completing a high pressure job with a very tight deadline.

Below are pics of the printed cover along with the final Illustration I created (the shells were part of the original brief, but they decided to remove them from the Illustration when it went to print).

Got a little kick out of seeing my name next to the Penguin logo too 🙂